Cluster bean (guar phali)

Cyamopsis tetragonoloba · Vegetable

40 pairings

The cluster bean or guar phali (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) is the fresh, immature green pod of the guar plant, picked young and cooked as an everyday vegetable across the drylands of India and Pakistan. Slender, flat and borne in dense upright clusters, the pods have a firm bite and a distinctive faint bitterness, and are stir-fried or braised into homely monsoon-season sabzis — a different, fresher food from the mature seed that is milled into industrial guar gum.

Picking a good onedrag

Slim, bright, snapping crispLimp and blotched, seeds hard

Shop freshThe everyday bundle: de-string, cut short and cook through - stir-fried, braised or pressure-cooked to tender. Not eaten raw.Everyday best

Colour and skinGreen and matte, hairs rubbing away

The snapSnaps, but the break face is drying

Seed line and seamSeeds as soft bumps, one fine seam string

Smell at the breakFaintly green, close to neutral

What to look for, from slim, bright, snapping crisp to limp and blotched, seeds hard.

Preparing